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How is the condition of vintage or second hand instruments sold at Five G?

Vintage and second hand instruments we sell are fully repaired and calibrated, and are ready for your musical performance in the best of form.

1) Prevention of failure.

We provide preventive maintenance, and prevent foreseeable future troubles with your instrument by utilizing repair records of more than 15 years.

For parts where we have experienced similar failure more than once in the past, we will take preventive measures. Weak cable connections, solder degradations will be reinforced for fewer future failures.

2) Maintaining the original sound of instruments.

We use parts specified by the manufacturer. When they are no longer available, we will use equivalent parts which give the same sound and
control feeling as the original part.

Attention!

The sound of expensive models will be checked closely using "GENELEC 1032A" monitor, "SONY MDR-CD900ST" headphones and "CSE FX-400" stabilized power supply to verify the presence of the unique tone each model originally has.
On the work bench we use "TEKTRONIX digital phosphor oscilloscope""KIKUSUI" digital oscilloscope, "FLUKE" digital multimeter and try to find the smallest errors we can find in digital circuits.
A number of customers care about the sound of vintage synths such as Minimoog, and we think that most of them would be satisfied with what we offer at FIVE G. Odd sounding instruments will be checked and repaired again.

3) Restoring and preserving electric contacts.

We use FIVE G original PSN treatment for electric contact repairs.
(PSN:Phased Sequence of Neutral-deoxidation)
Keyboard contacts, potentiometer internal contacts, etc. will be treated with PSN for longer life. With PROPHET-5 keyboards, good contact will
remain for up to 2 years. With ODYSSEY sliders, contacts remain mostly good after a year. The smooth action of the PSN treated ODYSSEY sliders is well loved by our customers.

4) Design error correction.

Some vintage digital circuits have design related problems (LINN LM-2, MOOG MEMORYMOOG, OXFORD OSCAR, PPG WAVE2.2/2.3, SCI PROPHET-VS), and we correct those errors. In those times, digital circuitry was still a new technology and that seems to have resulted in inexperienced designs.

5) Care for good playing feel and ease of expression.

Keyboards using the same mechanical design which is found in Prophet-5,Minimoog, Odyssey, PPG WAVE, etc. will be mechanically adjusted for even touch and action across all keys. Pitch and modulation wheels will be adjusted for your ease of expression as well. Unadjusted keyboards could
make you wonder if your playing skill has deteriorated, while properly adjusted keyboard let you perform pleasantly as you like. The least variation of touch and action among keys will remain.

We also reinforce the J-Wire key contacts and prevent them from dropping off which leads to failure.

6) Taking care of cosmetic condition.

We take special care not to blemish the instrument while servicing.

7) Continued service and accumulation of service knowledge.

Vintage instruments sold at FIVE G and which is owned by the original customer can receive service after the sales as long as we can provide. We keep stock of original Transistors, ICs, capacitors and rare custom ICs made by Roland, Yamaha and Korg.

We repair instruments here inside the FIVE G shop. We keep records of repairs and refer to this knowledge for future repairs, to enhance our service quality.

8) Some past services we've done.

For example, we have serviced Jupiter-8 MIDI and Odyssey for reunited YMO in 1993, Jupiter-8 MIDI for Howard Jones.

*There will be no service for instruments sold with conditions "AS IS",
"Parallel import", etc..
*We do our best when servicing. Vintage synthesizers are electronic instruments manufactured more than 20 years ago, we ask for your understanding regarding its aged conditions.
*Regarding the internal sequencers of vintage synths, we only guarantee those for drum machines. For others please use external sequencers.

Do you service vintage synthesizers which the original manufacture no
longer service?

If you bought vintage instrument directly from us, you can receive service after the sales as long as it is possible. We keep enough stock of electronic components such as transistors, ICs, capacitors for future repairs. We try to acquire parts which are no longer provided by the original manufacturer ourselves, but there are some hard-to-find components which leads to difficulty in servicing particular models such as Rhodes Chroma Polaris. (Potentiometers, switches which we don't have replacements for will be disassembled and cleaned internally. Contact failure might reoccur with time and depending on the surrounding environment.)

Can you put item on hold for me?

Yes, we can hold item for you for 3 days. With 10% of the price as a deposit, we can hold it up to a month.If we don't hear from you after the period,
we will give priority to other customers who have interest. In this case,
we will pay back your deposit at our shop. Bank transfer is an option but the bank charge will be paid from the deposit.

Can I play second hand instruments displayed at Five G?

Of course you can. If the instrument you want to try out is not plugged in, just let us know. Please note that some of the vintage/second hand instruments may need service and may not be possible to play.

Do you sell new instruments? Do you sell digital instruments?

Yes. In case we don't have what you want in stock, back ordered goods will normally arrive in 2 to 3 days.

Do you accept orders by E-mail?

A Yes. Please note that E-mail is not being checked real time so there could be some delay and there could be a chance for the item you want to be sold out by phone orders or orders at shop front. Especially shortly after the vintage list update, we get many inquiries. So the most reliable way of ordering is to call us on phone right after we open.

We can send you pictures of the instrument but it could take a few days and there could be some cases in which we can not provide pictures.

If you are using Gmail or Yahoo mail, messages from us could be sometimes found in your spam box. Our message to Hotmail addresses could sometimes be rejected by the mail server due to automatic spam rejection and won't even show up in you spam box. Please use other email services or call us on phone. Thank you.

What does "調整中" (under maintenance) on the list mean?

As it suggests, those products have failure and are not ready to be sold yet. Let us know if you are interested in buying one of those. We will make it a priority to service the instrument.

For some vintage instruments, sourcing parts or technical information is difficult and could end up taking a much longer time before shipping than expected. In this case, orders will be cancelled if it is taking longer than 4 months. We do so because we do not want our customers to be waiting for too long. Customers will be noticed in advance. Thank you for your understanding.

I want to buy instrument which is "調整中" (under maintenance) and take it
with me today.

If you want to use the instrument right away, you can verify its condition at FIVE G shop, and take it home with you if you are happy with it. Within the warranty period, we would offer the same maintenance as what we provide usually before shipping.

What is "5G-Mod."?

5G-Mod. stands for "FIVE G modified". It means that FIVE G have modified the instrument's design to gain greater stability in performance. Currently 5G-Mod. is applied to MINIMOOG, MEMORYMOOG, PPG WAVE, LINN LM-2 and OXFORD OSCAR. It will not affect the sound character because the sound generating components are never changed from the original design.

2) Extended operating life of instrument.

3) Correction of design oriented problems.

We correct design errors which lead to malfunctions found sometimes in early digital circuits. This prevents freezing and memory loss.

4) Care for good playing feel and ease of expression.

Keyboards, pitch and modulation wheels will be adjusted for your best performance.

Solving problems resulting from the original design and alignment.Intervals between services are extended and playability is improved.

What does condition "美品" (very good plus) mean?

Second hand instruments are graded on cosmetic conditions. mint / near mint / very good plus / very good / good / poor

What is "現状品" (AS-IS)?

Instrument sold "AS-IS" can still be used though they have minor failure or missing accessories. We offer them with lower prices. Please contact us for detailed condition of specific "AS-IS" instrument. "AS-IS" items are sold without warranty.

What is "ジャンク" (JUNK)?

Instrument sold as "JUNK" will not function. Please use them for parts / repairs. "JUNK" is sold without warranty.

What is parallel imports?

Parallel imports are products which were imported from another country by a non-authorized distributor or were bought in another country and brought into Japan afterwards. These products can not get service from authorized distributors in Japan due to their warranty policy so we can not have them repaired or serviced. We can not order Japanese operation manuals for parallel imports. Due to these issues, parallel imports are sold / bought at a lower price and are sold without FIVE G warranty. Please note the inconvenience explained above.

I am looking for a vintage synthesizer with its cosmetic condition as good as possible.

We recommend choosing a product ranked mint, near mint or very good plus. If possible, please visit our shop and see its condition by yourself.Vintage synthesizers are electronic instruments manufactured more than 20 years ago, so we ask for your understanding regarding its aged conditions.

Can I purchase an operation manual for a vintage synthesizer?

We sell vintage synthesizers with their operation manuals. We do not sell operation manuals separately. Operation manuals for current products can be back ordered.

I am thinking about buying a vintage synthesizer at web auctions.

It is true that the price is lower than buying one which is fully serviced from a synthesizer shop like us. But there are reasons for those to be cheap. Synthesizers are complex electronic products and testing its functions fully is a complicated task even for us. Also, it is difficult to verify that the function and sound are right for buyers who own the particular product for the first time. For example, in Roland's analog drum machines, there are different sounding instruments due to different production lots and individual differences. There can also be electric contact problems in unserviced vintage instruments.

We sometimes buy instruments that customers bought through web auctions.More than a few times, those were in unusable condition as a musical instrument. Even though the instrument functions, it can be weak sounding due to individual differences of electronic parts, bad repairs, etc. Some ad hoc repairs make future repair almost impossible. Playing a poorly adjusted instrument would be a cause of your stress.

When there is a failure which only comes up once in a while, it is hard to find the cause. If someone bought an instrument with such a failure, most of them would have no clue. Even if they bring the instrument into a repair shop, these subtle failures might not be found. Especially in inexpertly repaired instruments, there are failures caused by use of wrong parts which has the correct part number labeled but with different characteristics.These causes are very difficult to find even for us.

There also are times that the instrument's original manufacturer already discontinued servicing or replacement parts for the instrument are hard to find.

We recommend an instrument fully repaired and sold with warranty and service after sales like the ones we sell at FIVE G.

Selling your instruments

I want to sell my synth.

For the latest buying prices and procedure, please click "買取/下取" (Sell / Trade In) on the left side menu. For the price of instrument which is not on the list, please call us. Detailed information is in the "買取/下取" (Sell / Trade In) section.

Attention!

*For vintage synths sold at FIVE G we offer an extra 10% from the usual buying price so let us know. Most of the time within the warranty period,there will be no reduction of buying prices due to failures. For trade ins of vintage synths sold at FIVE G we offer an extra 15% from the usual buying price.
*For trade ins of second hands we offer extra 5% from the usual buying price. If the price of what you are buying is much lower than the price of what you are selling us, we will calculate 5% from the price of what you are buying.

I want to sell something with a failure.

At FIVE G we can properly valuate the price for instrument with failures or problems. We will open the instrument during valuation and check internally. If you do not want us to open your instrument please let us know in advance. There could be cases where we can not buy your instrument for reasons such as we can not find replacement part or we found too many problems to fix. Also there could be a reduction in the buying price when the instrument had gone through untechnical repairs which we need to fix.

If there is no pickup for 3 months after canceling the sale, we might discard the instrument.

I don't live in Tokyo and I want to sell my synth but don't have a case.

We can send you cases for Prophet-5, Minimoog, etc. so please let us know. We will pay all the shipping so please use the parcel label we send with the case. In the case where you cancel the sale, we will ask you to pay 1 return trip shipping.

We only have limited numbers of cases so we might have to ask you for your patience. Also there are synths which we can not provide cases for.

Is it possible to have my instrument on consignment sale?

We can only accept current products or products that the manufacturer is still servicing for consignment sale. Hence, we do not accept products which need special servicing such as vintage synths. Consignment sale charge is 20% of the selling price. For details, please contact us.

My synth is heavily tobacco-stained, will that reduce the price?

Considerably tobacco-stained synths will take some time for cleaning -for example, for a 61 key synth, around ?20,000 will be reduced from the buying price. Around ?10,000 will be reduced for heavily sticked packaging tapes. Missing pot knobs and button caps will also reduce the price.Although we have some stock of spare pot knobs and button caps for various instruments, if something hard to find is missing, the reduction of the price will be larger than the price of the part. Please contact us in advance.

What makes up the difference between the maximum buying price and actual buying price after valuation?

Maximum buying price is applied to instrument with good cosmetic condition and no functional problem. For instrument with mint cosmetic condition which we can sell at a higher price, we will increase the buying price. Price reduction for tobacco-stained instrument is large because it will take some time for cleaning not only cosmetically but internally (circuit, electric contacts) as well. For failures, reduction of the buying price will be determined by the estimated time needed for servicing.Stickers and packaging tape on the panel also takes time to clean so will face price reduction.

If you have any questions about the valuation, please feel free to ask the
staff.

Servicing

I found a problem with the instrument I bought at Five G.

There may be problems which occur from time course, working environment,transport conditions, etc.. We offer servicing free of charge within the warranty period. (except instruments sold as "JUNK" or "AS IS") If you find problems right after the delivery, please let us know as soon as possible.We will send the delivery company for pick up. In this case we will pay the return shipping. From our experience, loose screws and failures could occur when transporting cases with ball shaped edges such as Anvil's. These cases seem to make larger vibrations when being sorted on roller conveyor at the delivery company. After 2 weeks from purchase, normal servicing conditions will be applied.

I found a problem within the warranty period.

We try our best to minimize the chance of failures but there may be problems which occur from time course, working environment, transport conditions, etc.. We offer servicing free of charge within the warranty period. (Except instruments sold as "JUNK" or "AS IS". Also instrument with a considerable amount of dust inside will be excluded from warranty service.)

Please let the clerk know that the instrument is within the warranty period. Currently the servicing section has a lot of service operations to process. Although the warranty servicing will take priority over other work, it will take 2 to 3 weeks to finish. Thank you for your understanding.

Even after the warranty period ends, we are happy to service your instrument so please let us know. (Expect instruments sold as "JUNK" or "AS IS") We will ask for the model name and the serial number when receiving the instrument to service.

I couldn't contact Five G about the problem before the warranty period ended due to personal reasons. Can it be still serviced as in warranty?

We can provide service for your instrument, but within our warranty conditions. Warranty periods for new or second-hand instruments are set at your purchase. Warranty periods for serviced instrument is 3 months. Please let us know before the warranty expires. We take responsibility for servicing the instruments we sold and serviced.

What should I do to have my vintage synth I bought at FIVE G serviced?

Please make a note of how you found the problem and send or bring it with the synth. Knowing what you have experienced makes the servicing a lot easier. Also, please make a backup of the patch memory yourself because there are chances for the data to be erased during the repair.

I would like to have my synth fixed as soon as possible.

Currently the servicing section has a lot of service operations to process, so we can not take urgent service order. Also, we can not take deadlines for service orders. We can not provide a warranty for same day service. Please check its functions and sounds when you pick up.Synthesizers are complex products and if we don't get enough time to check through all the functions, we can not provide warranty.

Normally we try to finish servicing by the date of your choice. If it's urgent such as only 2 to 3 days, we might ask for 20% extra charge depending on the situation.

For instrument which we need to send to the manufacturer's service dept.,instrument which we don't have replacement parts for at the time, instrument which has hard to determine problems, we may not be able to meet your request. For example, we don't have replacements for the potentiometers used in PROPHET-5, ODDYSEY, LM-2, etc.. For these pots, we go through a routine of opening the case, cleaning the contacts and checking the result after a while more than once. For urgent servicing, we do a final check before we give the synth back to you but there is a tendency for pot noise problems to reoccur because of the skipped process. We can give the instrument back to you during the repair if you need to use it. We will continue the service after and we will make a discount for the later service as it is halfway done. Please pay the shipping charge.

I need to have my synth serviced but I don't own a flight case.

We can send you the case we have but we need to ask you to pay shipping for 2 round trips. Within the warranty period, please pay shipping for 1 round trip. We only have limited numbers of cases so we might have to ask you for your patience. There are synths which we can not provide cases for.

When you receive the serviced synth, please take 1 week to check the functions and sounds of the synth and make sure every thing is good before sending back the case. When sending back the case, please use the parcel label we send. If you notice anything wrong with the synth, please let us know. We go through all the functions of the synth several times before sending, but there may be problems which occur from transport conditions.The vibrations during highway transport and transshipment at freight distributions seem to be a rough environment for vintage synths.

I have a vintage synth which I bought at a different shop. Is it possible to have it serviced or modified?

For more than 20 years, FIVE G have been selling synths to many customers.To maintain the servicing quality for those synths sold here, we can not take service or modification orders for vintage synths which were bought at other shops. Thank you for your understanding. We do not introduce other tech services due to various reasons.

Before applying for the service, please check whether the instrument was bought at FIVE G or not. We also have sales record, so please feel free to ask us.

Is it possible to have a synth serviced which is not vintage?

We ask the manufacture's service dept. for servicing. If the manufacture still accepts service orders for the particular product, we can handle it.

Do you still service DOEPFER MS-404 or QUASIMIDI products?

It has been more than 8 years since those products were discontinued.Japanese distributors FUKUSANKIGYO for DOEPFER MS-404 and QUASIMIDI products don't accept service orders anymore. But if it you bought them at FIVE G we can take care of them. We will do our best but please understand that there could be a hard to fix problem because there are parts which are no longer available for replacement.

I want to cancel my service order.

You can cancel the order if you don't find the quotation right. In this case please pay the cancellation charge depending on the manufacturer of the instrument. If you haven't come pick up the instrument 3 months after your cancellation, we will send you the instrument by pay on delivery.Thank you for your understanding.

Can I send or bring only the PC board for servicing?

With only the PC board, it is not possible to identify the problem. So the answer is no. Thank you for your understanding.

Can FIVE G find the problem without me giving any information?

Synthesizers are complex electronic products so we could miss finding a problem which only shows up when some rare conditions occur. Please let us know in detail where you suspect the failure to be occurring. Especially for repairing rare symptoms and small problems, knowing your experience will be a great help for us.

I want to have my synth modified.

If you order modification from the modifications menu at the same time as your purchase of the synth, the modification price will be discounted 10%. We only modify synths sold at FIVE G. We also offer modifications which are not on the modifications menu. For these, we will need some time to research, and there could be a mod which is not possible.

My instrument broke in a car accident. Can you make a quotation for repair?

Yes we can. For a printed quotation for the insurance company, we take ?2,000 charge for each copy. If you want the instrument to be serviced at FIVE G after the quotation, this charge will be free and we only ask you to pay the service charge. If you cancel the quotation itself, we still need to ask you for the checking charge. Thank you for your understanding.

Payment

Can I use installment payment for mail orders?

Yes we currently offer up to 60 payments loan from NICOS, JACKS, and others. Customers under the age of 20 and students need agreement by their parents.

Can I use credit card?

Yes, we accept payment using various credit cards and debit cards. The price on the tag is cash price. For payment with cards, we will ask for +5% card charge for credit card, +3% card charge for debit card. For security reasons, we do not accept card payments for mail orders.

Can I use cash on delivery?

Yes you can but there will be a cash on delivery charge depending on the price of the goods.

Miscellaneous

I am at JR Harajuku station but can't find your shop.

Please call us on 03-3746-0861. We will give you directions.

I took the wrong elevator and came to the back door, may I come in?

We apologize for your inconvenience. We can not have customers come in from the back door due to security reasons. Please use the front door. For security, we have several security cameras recording inside FIVE G. Thank you for your understanding.

What are your opening hours?

Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday open hours are 15:00-20:00.
Saturdays, Sundays are open hours are 12:00-20:00.
We are closed on Tuesdays.

Sun

12:00〜20:00

Mon

15:00〜20:00

Tue

Closed

Wed

15:00〜20:00

Thu

15:00〜20:00

Fri

15:00〜20:00

Sat

12:00〜20:00

What is the bar code on instrument for?

Instruments in FIVE G have a label with a 7 digit number and a bar code on its surface. This is for our inventory management to track the instruments' history. We also manage second hand instruments using serial numbers on the instruments so it is not necessary for future servicing usually and it's up to you whether to keep it or not. Only for instruments on which you can not find serial number anywhere, we would like to ask you to keep the label on the instrument surface.